Collars have been provided for use with severe trauma patients. Some of these collars have a structure that immobilizes or restricts the movements of the head relative to the spine, such that no externally-induced or patient-induced hazardous movements might endanger the overall patient's safety. In practice, such collars can inhibit or limit head movements, for example prevent reclination or upward rotation of the head beyond a given angle relative to the spine, and limit crush or sprain injuries to vertebrae and cervical nerves due to external impact trauma or a cervical disease. Typically, these collars are used on patients involved in road accidents to prevent movements during transportation to hospital or during later convalescence from further worsening any injury suffered due to the accident. Some of such collars are formed from two semi-annular portions which are mutually articulated to open apart for application to the neck, and to close for maintaining the correct position of the neck and head relative to the spine.
Collars are also known that have a semi-rigid structure, typically made of synthetic foam material, to act as transition supports from rigid-collar therapy to the end of the therapy. With time, these collars have been also used in other forms of therapy, such as those for thermal treatment of the circulatory system of the neck that supplies blood to the brain. In practice, apertures can be formed in such collars, namely in the throat section thereof, for introduction and stable but removable positioning of corresponding cooling elements, which have been previously placed and maintained in a refrigerating unit. Such cooling elements can release cold during use, and can be positioned at the carotid artery, the artery that supplies blood to the brain and extends through the front area of the neck, when such collars are closed around the neck.
A cooling collar of the foregoing type is disclosed in International Publication Number WO2012/058427, which teaches an “Immobilization collar with cooling elements and method of using the same”. The collar is actually a cervical immobilizer that has an annular support structure having an axial length and at least two support structures. The collar has a front opening that may be closed by a door having a pressure member on the inner neck-facing surface. This pressure member can press a cooling element against the front portion of the patient's neck, which cooling element is inserted between the collar and the neck through the front opening.
The foregoing collars suffer from a number of drawbacks. A first drawback is that such collars that are used for first rescue of patients have a rigid structure, which is specially designed to inhibit any movement of the neck and spine in the proximity of the cervical vertebrae when this part of the body suffers from a traumatic injury or a bone disease. A second drawback is that the cooling elements that are used therein have a temporary effect that progressively decreases with time, especially because they are taken out of the refrigerator and placed in contact with the warm epidermis of the neck. Therefore, the cooling elements must be replaced after a certain time interval to maintain a desired low temperature value required by the therapeutic needs of patients. The replacement of these cooling elements is considerably uncomfortable for patients that already suffer from normally painful diseases as such replacement often requires manipulation of collars by the operator, with the risk of causing movements that are hazardous for the vertebrae of the patient and might affect the patient's physical recovery. Furthermore, in case of diseases that are not caused by head trauma but instead by cerebral anoxia or hypoxia, for example due to a cardiac arrest, the use of such collars can be inappropriate as the collars can immobilize the patient and hinder treatment or makes therapy useless.